Iversen, a Lakeville resident who teaches government classes at Eagan High School, was endorsed Saturday as the District 36B DFL candidate for the Minnesota House of Representatives.

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Iversen and District 36 DFL chair Toby Nichols said the endorsement was a matter of serendipity. Iversen had been thinking for a while about ways to get more involved in the political process and Nichols was looking for a candidate for House. When they found each other, things just fell into place.

"It was just one of those coming together moments," Nichols said. "She started asking questions about the same time we started asking questions."

Iversen, who has four children between the ages of 6 and 14 currently teaches part time. She teaches ninth grade social studies and through the end of the week will teach two government classes and a law class. On Monday she will add an Asian studies class.

Education has long been important to Iversen. Her husband is a teacher in the Lakeville School District, her father is the former principal of Apple Valley High School and her mother is a former school guidance counselor. Iversen's interest in politics started to grow when she worked on a levy effort in the Lakeville district.

"If we do not value our kids, what do we value?" Iversen said. "Frankly, there was a certain amount of frustration with what was happening in our education system."

Iversen is still getting used to the idea of running for office. She started making connections at Saturday's convention and said she looks forward to getting out to other parts of the district to find out what is important to people.

"I'm anxious and excited to really dig in and become more informed and talk to people," she said. "I love to meet people and talk to people. I'm excited about that."

Senate candidate still

to come

District 36 Democrats are taking their time to find the right candidate to challenge Republican David Thompson for the District 36 Senate seat. Nichols said because there is no incumbent in the race district leaders want to make sure they have the best possible candidate. He expects to choose a candidate at a central committee meeting to be held sometime in April.

The newly formed central committee consists mostly of party delegates.

"We want to move fairly deliberately now that we know it's an open seat that we're running for," Nichols said. "We've decided to proceed with caution and make sure we vet our candidate thoroughly.

"We're talking to a few people, but we want to proceed carefully," he said. "When we push off we want to push off totally in unison."